When Dylan Larkin first requested his trade from the Detroit Red Wings, it seemed like many were empathetic.
After all, Larkin just made it through 10 years without the playoffs. Everyone has a breaking point eventually, and players are well within their rights to request trades.
Flash forward months later, however, and it looks like the narrative has turned on Larkin.
After months of providing nothing but a three-team trade list, a lack of communication with fans, a half-baked effort at playing for the team and then refusing to play for the team, Larkin has been suspended without pay and many in the league are scrutinizing him.
One such player is Tampa Bay Lightning forward Brandon Hagel.
Hagel and the Lightning are in a very different boat, but are facing a similar narrative. Their top player, Nikita Kucherov, has requested a trade and wants out. Kucherov is an unrestrcited free agent after this season, where Larkin has four years left on his contract. When asked about the trade request from his teammate, Hagel had this to say:
"Listen, Kuch is a good friend, a good teammate. He loves the city. He's done everything he possibly could for the city. It's not like he committed to be here for eight years and asked out two years into it."
If that isn't a direct shot at Larkin, who requested a trade just a few years into his eight year extension, I don't know what is.
While many in the national media insist on infantilizing Larkin, the players (and fans, for that matter) are of a different mind.
Red Wings moving on without Larkin
Hagel, obviously, isn't the only player to talk about moving on from Larkin. Following Larkin's suspension, the Red Wings surged to a 4-1 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks. If you had told Red Wings fans years ago that they'd be cheering for Patrick Kane but booing Dylan Larkin, they would've thought you were crazy.
But this is the NHL, where crazy things seem to happen on a weekly basis.
When asked about how the team responded, alternate captain Alex DeBrincat shared his thoughts:
"We've come together as a group and decided we're going to stick up for each other, play for each other every day, come to the rink and work hard. That's the culture we're setting here. We're going to move forward, and we're going to be fine."
"I think it meant a little more," said Moritz Seider when asked about the victory given Larkin's suspension. "We've got a really good group in here. This is us. We're going to do this together."
The Red Wings have moved on from Larkin. His locker is no longer present in Little Caesar's Arena. Posters and promotional material featuring him have been taken down. In the grand scheme of things, the Larkin era will likely be looked at as an afterthought -- or the catalyst to a much better, brighter era ahead.
It must be vindicating to players and fans to see non-Red Wings like Hagel on the same page, as well.
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